Bringing relief to scores of Indians aggrieved by bounced cheques, a bill permitting the filing of cases at the place where a cheque is presented for clearance and not the place of issue was approved by parliament with the Rajya Sabha giving its nod on Monday.

Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha moved the Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Bill, 2015, which was passed by the Lok Sabha in the monsoon session, in the upper house to seek to replace an ordinance that was re-promulgated earlier.

The amendment seeks to overturn a Supreme Court ruling which said cases have to be initiated where the cheque-issuing branch was located, and provides that cases of cheque bouncing can now be filed only in a court that has jurisdiction over the bank branch of the payee.

The changes in the Negotiable Instruments Act will have implications for over 1.8 million cheque bounce cases pending in various courts, Sinha told the house.

If a complaint against a person issuing a bounced cheque has been filed in the court with the appropriate jurisdiction, then all subsequent complaints against that person will be filed in the same court.

The statement of objects and reasons of the bill says that following the Supreme Court's ruling, representations were made by various stakeholders concerned about the wide impact the judgment would have on business interests as it will offer undue protection to defaulters at the expense of the aggrieved complainant.

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Most arterial roads in the capital faced massive traffic jams as around 25,000 couples tied the knot in traditional Indian weddings on Monday.

Wedding organisers, farm house owners, banquet hall owners estimated around 20,000-25,000 weddings took place as the day was listed in Indian lunar almanacs as the most auspicious of the season for the marriages.

A city-based priest, Pt. Ram Gopal told IANS: "The number of weddings could be around 25,000."

"I myself attended three weddings. I along with my relatives have been managing weddings for years. We all were busy in two or more marriages on Monday."

Gopal said the day was very auspicious because of "Ekadashi tithi", the eleventh day since New Moon according to lunar calendar.

"The next two good dates for weddings are December 12 and 13, but none this year could beat the record set by December 7," he said.

A farmhouse owner, Ravindra Gupta, told IANS he had managed three marriages for which he had to outsource additional manpower for catering and other things.

"I have seven banquet halls in Rani Bagh and Mehrauli and all of them were booked three months ago," Gupta told IANS.

A band performer, Mohammed Ibrahim, the owner of one of the oldest bands in Delhi, told IANS: "My men attended nine marriages. As every wedding needs over 20 men, we had to seek over 50 men on double pay."

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Sharad Agarwal said the city started facing traffic jams from 8 p.m. onwards due to large number of weddings, which involved guests as well as baratis - those joining the groom's procession.

"In view of the large number of weddings happening in Delhi, we had deployed maximum number of traffic police staff to manage traffic," Agarwal said.

G.T. Karnal Road in north Delhi, Rani Bagh in south Delhi, several roads in Dwarka in west faced massive traffic jams due to the weddings and processions while the traffic movement was very slow in trans-Yamuna area and on the National Highway-8 leading unto suburban Noida and Ghaziabad areas.

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External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday said people who lost their passports in the Chennai floods will get the same reissued for free.

"If your passport is lost or damaged in floods, please go to any of the three (Passport Sewa Kendra) PSKs in Chennai. They will issue you fresh passport free of charge," the minister tweeted.

Lakhs of people were hit due to floods caused by torrential rains in the Tamil Nadu capital.

Life was slowly limping back to normalcy on Monday.

Disclaimer: Information, facts or opinions expressed in this news article are presented as sourced from IANS and do not reflect views of Moneylife and hence Moneylife is not responsible or liable for the same. As a source and news provider, IANS is responsible for accuracy, completeness, suitability and validity of any information in this article.